Rapture Computers
Sitemap Computers See Bio-Electronics 'Brain Module' - One of the Fundamental building blocks of the Thinker and of similar 'intelligent' machines... ''': Rapture's bio-electronic revolution sidestepped decades of Surface World advancements. Even to this day, the real world has not managed many of similar Artificial Intelligence achievements (even with today's complex micro circuitry and processing capacity/speed). With Artificial Intelligence the practicalities of PROGRAMMING the huge quantities of cohesive/intricate 'smart' logic always remained the roadblock. The methods have been long known - it is building all the required intricate logic which is the difficult part. 'Weak' AI to handle very specific tasks has already been done - Chess, Jeopardy ... (and would be used in this MMORPG for example), but 'Strong' AI can handle generalized problems -- things it has never seen before (but can compare similar things to). In Rapture, because of the ADAM tool and research/work in genetics, and investigations of biological models/patterns, greater advances were able to be made. Biological models could be employed and copied. The same N-grams used to reconstruct a long dead Delta's mind could be used as patterns to copy and build up the complex logic required for human-like Artificial Intelligence. It is copying what millions of years of evolution developed, instead of starting over from scratch and trying to build it all via tedious baby steps. The ultimate achievement was "The Thinker", which eventually achieved self-consciousness in the plotline. It required many magnitudes of logic complexity/content greater than the typical Flybot control unit or the City Repair Guidance system, or the Train/Trolley Scheduler. Assembling the required hardware was hard enough, but composing the logic was far more difficult. It took ADAM technology to make the copying of chunks of the functions of human brains possible. --- --- --- '''Gear driven/mechanical analog computers in Rapture (no Steampunk-like fallacy here): Early calculation machines, used for fixed functions usually (like trajectory calculators on WW2 battleships) - effectively a mechanical slide rule - more a tool than a self-operating programmable machine. Useful for scientific research to run certain types of calculations. Combined with electrical relays, similar mechanisms were used by Various punchcard handling/processing machines (largely billing and accounting uses). More complicated mechanical calculator machines had a physically limited computing speed (versus electronics - even tubes sped things up by factor of hundreds). It would be a while before electronic computers would be common used, let alone made in Rapture. Rapture's first electronic units were Surface mechanisms ('small' ones were brought with later immigrants and others purchased from Surface sources). Some experimental computers were constructed, and technology was pushed forward with use of the new X-isters. Brain Boost later sped tech development up in Rapture, and was combined with contemporary technical information from the Surface about new electronic computer technology. It started going sideways when Bio-Electronics allowed very complex logic circuitry to be made. This led to The Thinker (RODIN), and eventually AI (use of N-grams to re-construct brain-like functions). Parts of their structure were very different from the computer architectures used on the Surface (which were also primitive from what we have now). The alleged "Predicting the Future" that Reed Wahl raves about (Minervas Den DLC) is more in his head than anything real - an ADAM insanity delusion. Logic for discerning and solving complex problems have to be painstakingly composed and the result most often is NOT applicable to problems of other kinds. The lessons any Learning Machine is trained with had to come thru a human - the limiting factor. Human brains cannot predict something they cant possibly know about and arbitrary outcomes are little more than possible Probabilities - not Certainties. . . . .